


Kate vs. Harran

by Claireton



Series: The Crate Adventures [4]
Category: Dying Light (Video Game)
Genre: Apocalypse, F/M, Inner Dialogue, M/M, POV Third Person, Profanity, Rare Fandoms, Self-Worth Issues, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 18:25:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7117477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Claireton/pseuds/Claireton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of adventures in Harran centered around Kate Murphy, an original character. Other chapters of her story have thus far been posted as separate fics and can be found in the same series as this fic in chronological order, but from this fic onward they will all be put into the same work and separated by appropriately named chapters. Tags will be updated as the story is. Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kate vs. Harran

**Author's Note:**

> Kate doesn't like being thought of as helpless, so when a Trader in the Tower implies she's below Crane it's simply not acceptable. (1/2)

The sun beat down through the windows of the Tower, brightly illuminating the insides and bringing a clammy heat to everything inside. It added a pesky glare to all of the metal items in the Trader's shop, even the small collection of makeshift lockpicks resting in the little box between Kate's hands.

_'Well, I've gotta learn how to pick a lock sooner or later.'_

She jostled the contents around a bit, inspecting them more closely.

_'Better be sure I'm not wasting any money here.'_

"You going to buy them or not?" the Trader asked in his thick Australian accent.

The brief glare Kate thrust at him had him shut his mouth.  She had gotten pretty good at it, considering most of her time was spent alone and she didn't actually have much occasion to use it. After lifting a few of the reshaped paperclips out and almost being able to feel the Trader's suspicion, she deemed them acceptable and buried her hand into her back pocket to retrieve her wallet. It was a faded old _Hello Kitty_ thing found shortly after she had become solo, and even though it had raised its fare share of judgemental eyebrows in its time, Kate couldn't bring herself to get a new one. Who doesn't like cute little cartoon cats?

She fished out payment that was far too much for a bunch of warped paper holders and handed it over before placing the box back on the counter and swinging her sling pack around. Having it in front of her brought thoughts of Crane dancing to the forefront of her mind and she slid her free hand over the sheathed knife at her waist.

_'Should I visit him while I'm here? Why would I?'_

She dropped the box into her pack and closed it over again.

_'He did ask me to drop in once in a while...'_

"Anything else meet your fancy?"

A "No." was already rolling off of Kate's tongue before her eyes seemed to jump over their own accord to one of the shelves behind him. One of the many items shoved onto it was a clean looking little pink bag with the words ' _Make up'_   scrawled on in blue marker. Her fingers twitched.

The Trader followed her gaze and invited a pang of annoyance when he instantly clamped his hand around the bag in question like he was reading her mind. Upon seeing her off-put expression a smile that was far too smug pulled at his lips and he tossed the bag atop the counter between them.

"No need to be shy, love. Plenty of women 'round here like to doll themselves up."

Kate refrained from a response while her hand went back for her wallet again.

"Might even get yourself a man!"

The hand stopped and instead begged to be introduced to his face. However, such actions were halted when he once again spoke up, no longer focused on her.

"Well if it isn't the legend of Harran himself!"

"Hey, how's it going?" Kate didn't need to look to see who the voice belonged to.

_'You should  say something. Even just a hello.'_

"Listen, thanks for what you did for us bu-" The trader stopped himself and looked back to her.

"Oh, that's five hundred there, love."

Kate blinked at him, her eyebrows skyrocketing.

"Five hundred? That's insane."

"Oh, hey Kate." Crane's greeting was swatted away by Kate's hand extending to the space between them.

"Look love, I don't make the rules."

"Wha- Yes you _do!_ "

"Five hundred."

"Look, whatever it is if you need me to pay for it I will." Crane tried to inject himself again with more success.

"No, Crane. Nobody should have to pay that much for some face paint."

"Well then it looks like you're finished here, love. G'day."

The Trader dismissed the frowning Kate entirely in favour of beckoning Crane over.

"Right, if you're up for it, there's just one more thing..." the rest of the words were lost to Kate while the two drifted over to a map on the far wall.

Her eyes fell back to the bag on the counter. Right beside her pack. Then her fingers were around it. And then the zip on her pack somehow flew open and the makeup bag was trapped inside.

_'Oh no, what happened?'_

The two men seemed to take no notice of her, too absorbed in the Trader's finger tracing a route along the paper. Kate swung the pack around her back again and secured the clasp at her front to tighten it.

"And maybe you could bring along your protégée too." Kate flinched when the two turned to eye her.

"What?" she managed not to glance at where the vanished bag had been.

"Protégée?" Crane echoed in a bemused tone.

"Well, you've been showing her the ropes so far, haven't you? Maybe you could show her how to scrounge up a few quid."

Indignation struck Kate like a lightning bolt and had her face pull into a frown.

"I am _not_ his protégée."

"Whatever you wanna call it, love. Just be grateful he's taken you under his wing this far."

Her fingers curled up.

"Kate-" Crane's wary tone did nothing to alleviate her anger.

"Shut up."

"Look, I can do anything he can do." Kate's confident statement only brought a condescending smile that made her blood boil.

"Alright, love. Whatever helps you sleep at night."

She turned for the exit before the shouts working their way up her throat had a chance to appear, ignoring the calls of Crane and storming out to the main lobby.

_'Fuck off, "love". I'm not helpless. Not anymore.'_

She made it to the doorway that led to the broken staircase before coming to a halt. Her tongue ran over her teeth while the noticeboard called to her.

_'Don't. You've got nothing to prove to anyone.'_

Her feet disagreed and carried her over to inspect the various flyers. The requests came in every variety, from things Kate couldn't believe people had the audacity to ask someone to risk their lives for, to things that sounded so important she couldn't believe they hadn't been done yet. After some deliberation her fingers snaked around the edge of one scribbled on in plain black. Apparently there was a sizable stash of food in one of the slum supermarkets that had gone untouched thanks to a sudden swarm of biters. It was also evidently enough to warrant a quarter of the food for whoever returned it.

_'Couldn't somebody just take all of it if they wanted?'_

She lifted the paper from the board and checked the back: Blank.

_'How would you know someone didn't just take half of it and then you have you give them a quarter of what's left?'_

She crumpled it up and stuffed it carelessly into her pocket.

_'Well either way I could use some food. I'll decide what to do with it once I have it.'_

The man posted by the board offered her no more than an absent smile when she looked to him and so she just backed up and headed for the Tower's exit, envisioning the route in her head.

\------

 

The wall of the little shed pressed into Kate's back, guarding her from the view of the infected in the market's parking lot. The tireless announcement system of the building proudly repeated on a loop the same spiel about deals and drew infected from all over the place. She couldn't imagine how full of Volatiles the place must have been at night, though being stuck out in broad daylight wasn't exactly a blessing either. A cautious peek around the wall's edge seemed to show no desire in the infected to leave any time soon, and Kate cursed under her breath.

_'They must be really desperate for the half price laundry detergent.'_

She looked over her own clothes and sighed.

_'I know I am.'_

An opportunity where nothing looked her way presented itself and she scuttled over to an abandoned ambulance parked askew and only a few feet from the supermarket's walls. Its metal was hot to the touch and after a well deserved glare Kate looked over the bonnet at the path leading up to the market's main entrance. It had been split into a ramp and a couple of steps, the former of which was caked with the blood of the forgotten corpses at the bottom.

_'Let's not become those guys.'_

She moved to the back of the vehicle and took note of the infected still standing around the parking lot. None of them seemed particularly focused on the entrance, preferring to doddle around in circles or just daydream at the sky.

_'Have they actually realized nobody's inside? Are they capable of that?'_

Instead of going up to ask, Kate left the question unanswered and patted the knife at her waist in checking. Sneaking was always better, but one had to be prepared for worst case scenarios. Unfortunately, sneaking went and leapt right out the window when Kate tried to return to the front of the van and her foot connected with a bottle on the floor- Loudly.

_'Oh for fuck's sake.'_

The slightly-more-alert-than-usual rasping of decayed throats made themselves heard, and Kate sank lower against the ambulance while throwing her gaze around.

_'You've got this. Don't pussy out. Don't prove him right.'_

She snatched the bottle up and aimlessly chucked it backward over the ambulance, waiting with bated breath until the shattering was heard some distance off and the uneven shuffling of feet turned toward their new target. A puff of success left her cheeks.

_'Who's capable now?'_

Their attention spans had never been particularly strong, and so Kate took the opportunity to slip around the front of the ambulance, noting the current state of the mob. Most of them had congregated at where the bottle had smashed, but a few had declared themselves above such small distractions and remained posted at random spots, one of which Kate had to sidle behind to reach the ramp. Thankfully the generous splashing of blood on it had fully dried so that there was no risk of a bad step leaving her in a heap. The doors leading inside had quarantine notices spray painted on their glass and some sad looking tape of the same variety sagged at either side, having been torn away.

_'Wonderful.'_

Kate looked down to a hefty roll of quarantine tape that had been abandoned at the top of the ramp.

_'Well, if Crane can loot a quarantine zone, so can I.'_

She grabbed the handles of the doors and tugged, only being rewarded with a noisy clatter when the doors refused her entry. One aggravated look down revealed no outside obstruction and led to a series of re-attempted opening in which the doors would not be persuaded.

_'Come on, you piece of shit.'_

She stepped back and took in the doors' shape. Running and climbing everywhere gave your legs some power, but enough to kick in two locked doors? One hearty attempt doubted it. Another joined in mocking her, and the third was interrupted by suddenly becoming aware of footsteps behind her.

Kate whipped around, hand instinctively ripping her weapon out as she took in the scene; One biter coming right for her on the elevated ground, and a duo teaming up to approach the ramp. All three combined with the walls of the supermarket worked to ensnare Kate in a slowly shrinking box.

_'Fuck. Kicking things makes noise, genius.'_

The biter on her level would reach her first, though not fast enough to leave time to deal with the other two if she fought him. Adrenaline was already making her hands quiver by the time she remembered the roll of tape on the ground, and her eyes snapped to it just as the duo made their first steps onto the ramp. She skipped forward and smacked the thing with her foot, ignoring the dull pain response in favour of watching the roll barrel through the legs of the climbing biters and send them sprawling and roaring over one another. Rather than fight the last one she hopped over the makeshift bowling pins and surveyed the remaining infected in the lot zoning in on the anguished cries of their brethren.

_'God damnit.'_

The only sensible route available was back the way she had come, and after sheathing her knife once more she hoisted herself up to the top of the ambulance.

_'Please don't let there be any Virals around.'_

A still moment of listening and watching eased her worry on that subject and instead handed it over to the regular biters now swarming around one side of the vehicle.

_'I could just run. Come back later when they've calmed down and try again.'_

She looked over to the building and immediately caught notice of an air conditioning unit planted up into the wall, directly in front of the ambulance. Her fingers twitched.

_'But why do that when I can just avoid them altogether?'_

Once she backed up enough that her heels just kissed the end of the ambulance, a sprint and leap forward had her fingers stinging from being clamped so tightly around the metal edge of the unit. Her arm muscles complained when she hoisted herself up, throwing a knee up over what little space there was. Despite having to hug against the wall to ensure balance, a curt laugh escaped her lips.

_'I'd like to see Cra-'_

The right side of the unit cracked loudly and made a jarring jolt downward, throwing her off balance and eliciting a collection of moans from the biters crowded below. Kate's hands barely had time to wrap around the roof's edge before her legs were taken from under her and her feet were scraping alternately against the painted bricks.

_'Fuckfuckfuckfuck-'_

The soles of her shoes at last found purchase and threw her onto her back, with a pounding heart accompanying deep breaths as she stared up to the sky. A pair of birds soaring past mocked her inability to fly and stole her interest until they disappeared from sight. Reminded her of Crane too, solely because of the type of bird she suddenly decided he was named after. With a final deep breath she rolled over and peered down to the evil cube that had tried to take her down with it. Apparently unsatisfied with her survival, it had instead decided to plummet onto one of the biters and leave the thing's head crushed between itself and the grass.

_'Piece of cake.'_

Thanks to her elevated height, the Tower was now within view, and Kate did her best to glare across half of the city and at the greedy asshole stationed on the first floor.

_'Can the "Legend of Harran" do **that?** ' His "protégée" sure fucking can.'_

She pushed herself to her feet and took in the various clutter around the roof;  Two emptied crate drops, a few scattered crates and the occasional bowl or bucket in a wishful attempt to collect rainwater. There was even a desk with one chair on each side, likely a place for lookouts to sit whenever the place had last been inhabited. Bloodstains too, but they were so commonplace nowadays that Kate didn't pay much heed. Instead, she focused on the little room that inhabited the center of the roof.

_'Gotta be a ladder in there or something.'_

A test of the door didn't have it budge, and Kate let her forehead bang against it with a groan.

_'Who keeps running around locking things?'_

She unclasped her pack and swung it around, lifting out a handful of lockpicks before laying them out on the ground and replacing her pack.

_'Alright, how hard can it be?'_

She knelt and scooted closer to the lock, lifting a pick up beside it and trying to draw the connection in her head. A plethora of movie scenes surged through her head but brought up nothing fruitful.

_'Come on Kate. You've seen Crane do it before. If he can do it, you can.'_

She prodded the thin end of the pick into the lock, feeling rather clueless as she wiggled it around and nothing happened.

_'Oh wait, he uses a pocket knife at the bottom.'_

She lifted her knife from its sheath and looked it over uncertainly. Certainly quite a deal larger than a bitty pocket knife, but it still had a relatively small, sharp tip. She maneuvered that into the bottom of the lock and continued the fruitless jangling.

_'This is way easier in the movies..'_

The locked turned a fraction to the right and her eyes lit up. She applied more pressure and it twisted just that much further.

_' Easy. New Legend of Harran coming right up.'_

Her hand broke off to the right when its tether was lost and left her with only the end of a broken lockpick between her fingers. She stared at the remnants blankly before switching to the now full lock.

_'No. No.'_

An attempt at scraping the pieces out with her knife only left them further in than when she started. Her tongue was crushed between her teeth to help prevent a scream working up her throat. Instead she stood and directed a kick at the metal in punishment.

The door flew open. Kate blinked.

_'What? It was just stuck? Are you fucking kidding me?'_

A glance was thrown over her shoulder and at The Tower while she scooped up the remaining picks to stuff in her back pocket and sheathed her knife.

_'Think that was funny? Watch me come back with all this food, asshole.'_

A small hatch inside the room revealed to her a ladder that she ignored, simply hopping down the short distance and finding herself in another room with an empty doorway, seemingly solely dedicated to the ladder. The creepy lighting did nothing to ease Kate and her weapon was in her hand again while she eased forward.

_'If the doors were locked from the inside, nothing could have gotten in, right?'_

Her hands disagreed and remained at the ready for confrontation when a hallway opened up past the doorway. Nothing out of the ordinary was to be seen, considering filthied and abandoned hallways were all the rage in Harran at the moment. Include the shoddily barricaded doors spaced out along the walls and anyone could mistake it for a random building anywhere in Harran. A pair of clean double doors down to the right looked the most inviting route, though appearances were often deceiving in the midst of an apocalypse.

_'This place is **too** safe looking. I'm not buying it.'_

She stamped her foot against the linoleum. A few seconds and nothing had come shambling out of nowhere yet. Another stomp yielded the same result and Kate's jaw locked to the side while she slid toward the double doors. One final look back to the empty hallway and she pushed them open with a satisfyingly quiet whine of the hinges to reveal two flights of stairs.

_'Where even is this food?'_

Her hand retrieved the scrunched up help poster and made a decent attempt at smoothing it out.

_'No hint whatsoever. Delightful.'_

The useless paper was buried again and Kate shuffled down the steps, knife still in hand. Another set of double doors awaited her, their thin glass slots revealing a narrow view of the main supermarket behind them. The moment her feet left the staircase they were greeted with a thin layer of water that spread out across the entire floor.

_'What? Where did all this come from?'_

A few steps closer to the doors and the sloshing of her shoes rang through the air.

_'So much for sneaking, then. Great.'_

The metal bar of a handle crossing the door sank down easily, though the water resisted being pushed against and rippled outward in protest while Kate stepped through. Predictably, every shelf within sight had been picked clean of anything but dust or the occasional piece of trash, and the few refrigerators about the place had been felt up to the extent that they were lying across the ground. At least the lights were still on, even if the some of them dangled precariously from a ceiling that was missing too many square panels to count.

_'That food better actually still be here.'_

She dragged forward through the water, eyes still glossing over the shelves for the sake of sureness. Each row she passed was clear until the last one held a little cardboard box, tucked in snugly halfway down the section. She moved down and tapped it with her free hand. Empty.

"Hello?"

Kate ducked downward out of instinct, behind the shelf as her head spun this way and that and her heartbeat skyrocketed. The knife in her hand straightened out, eager to defend her, but with no targets to be seen along the rest of the aisle it remained aimless.

"I know you're there. I-I saw you duck behind the shelves."

_'Shit.'_

The voice didn't sound particularly threatening. Definitely didn't carry that cocky snarl that all of Rais' men seemed to be born with. Rather it sounded almost intimidated itself, with just a hint of a quiver in it. Kate's legs extended, slowly, until her eyes just passed the top of the shelf and showed her a greasy mess of hair encircling a young man's face.  His blue eyes widened briefly upon connecting with her own before accompanying a smile that was far too sudden and ill fitting for the situation.

"Hey, hey, look.." he talked as though speaking to a frightened child.

Kate's eyebrows furrowed when his hand came into view, holding a very used looking hatchet. Instead of an action ready grip, however, the hatchet dangled loosely in his grip before being placed on the row of shelves beside him and pushed halfway down the aisle. Both hands came up beside his head in a gesture of surrender and he glided back toward the open floor between the shelves and the cash registers.

"I don't want to fight. It's safe here. We're safe."

Now that he was in full view, Kate could see his apparel. A black t-shirt that even by Harran standards was absolutely filthy. Tracksuit bottoms torn to shreds at the ends. Running shoes so caked in dirt that their original colour was a mystery.

_'He doesn't look like he has any more weapons, but...'_

She surveyed the rest of the room much as she was able from her position. She knew the aisles to be empty and there wasn't much place else for anyone to hide.

"It's just me here. We're safe."

Kate stood all the way and watched his smile extend just that much further.

_'There's no "we" here, buddy...'_

"I'm Marco." he offered.

_'Act friendly. Find the food, and get out.'_

"Riley." she answered, moving down the aisle until her own body was in full view. Now that she had a clearer view, she could see a door some ways behind Marco, blockaded by a toppled vending machine and with a thin slit of glass on it. Too dark past the door to see what was actually inside.

_'Well, it's worth a shot..'_

"You know, Riley, you can put your knife away."

Kate's hand reluctantly returned her weapon to its sheath with her eyes trained on the door.

"There's food in here. Enough to last us weeks. We'll be safe in here."

"Oh?" Kate made a decent attempt at sounding curious.

_'He lives here. Could I take his food?'_

"I'm- uh, I'm kinda hungry _now_. Could I see it?"

His eyes scanned her, sliding up and down without ever losing the cordial smile on his features. They seemed to snag at her waist a while before connecting with her own again in a nod.

"Right over here."

He began to head right for the door Kate had been checking out. While he walked ahead Kate took the opportunity to look him over again. No visible weapons.

He went to the head of the toppled vending machine and sank himself to strain against it. A quickly uncomfortable silence grew while Kate watched the machine barely twitch along the floor and Marco's shoes slowly scrape backward through the water

"I-uh, I don't suppose you could help me out here?" Marco's struggling voice sounded as he continued his efforts.

_'Faster you get out of here the better.'_

"Sure, no problem." Kate replied.

She fell into place beside Marco while he stood and stretched out his back with an exasperated sigh. Despite bracing her legs and pushing with as much force as she could muster, the machine refused to budge.

_'Jesus Christ, is this thing full or what?'_

She re-adjusted her stance and planted her hands against the edge again while Marco continued his laboured breathing.

"You know, this would be easier if we _both_ pushed." she grunted.

"Oh, sure, let me just.." Marco trailed off.

Kate's head flew down to meet the face of the vending machine, exploding stars behind her eyes and eliciting a cry from her lips. She felt her hands slip from the vending machine while her feet backpedaled without permission and a high pitched siren droned in her ears. Then the water from the ground splashed up around her fallen body and soaked into her back while Marco stepped into view, looking down at her with a smile until darkness claimed her for its own.


End file.
